About Apple Rumors

The Angry Drunk says it best:

I’ve reached the point where I greet each new Apple prod­uct rumor with black, soul-crushing depression.

I’ve never been much for rumors. Indeed, I go out of my way not to cover them here or on the Mac Power Users. The fact is, Apple is a company full of smart people and smart people understand that in order to keep the lights on, they need to continue to innovate and ship products. Therefore, Apple will continue to innovate and ship products. I’m happy to wait until they are done. Sadly, the Apple rumors just magnify everything that is wrong with the Internet’s busted click to pay advertising model and Apple rumors will continue as long as people can make a few pieces of silver on it. What we can do, however, as a community, is not click, not cover, and generally ignore this fictitious digital vomit.

Instapaper Expert

Today Macworld ran an article from one of my favorite people, Practically Efficient’s Eddie Smith. Great job Eddie.

Leap Motion

Remember that scene in Minority Report all us nerds keep getting hot and bothered about? Looks like someone is going to try and ship it. I have no idea how well it will work but I ordered one.

via Steve Stanger

The BULK Bag Newsletter

Best newsletter ever finely crafted by Messrs. Mann and Benjamin. Don’t think about it. Just subscribe.

Buy Forklift for a Buck

If you are looking for a simple FTP client, Forklift, usually $30, is just a buck today. I reviewed this app a long time ago (2007) and for a dollar you can’t go wrong.

Let's Sing

If you didn’t already know him, Lex Friedman is definitely one of the good guys. Moreover, it appears Lex is one of the smart guys. He and Marco Tabini just released an app, Let’s Sing (Paid Version) (Free Version) that is the love child of Draw Something and Name That Tune. I’m going to have so much fun with this.

Paperless PDF and Update

A lot of people don’t own an iPad or live somewhere that doesn’t have an iBookstore. For them, I’ve just released a PDF version of the Paperless Field Guide. Go nuts. I looked at a lot of ways to deliver this PDF but ultimately decided on a simple PDF file (with embedded Internet links) and a folder containing all the screencasts. I didn’t bury the screencasts in the PDF for a few reasons:

1. It was going to be Flash-tastic, and I don’t like that.

2. Separating the video gives buyers the most options. You can put them in iTunes, or store it in a folder. You can also read the PDF separately.

It is a big download, weighing in at almost 900MB. Enjoy.

Overall, I’m thrilled with my first self published book. It is still #1 in the iTunes computer books category and I’m getting tons of great feedback. Moreover, yesterday I started a new Scrivener project. Stay tuned.

DropKey Encryption

It is too early to tell but this may be the simple file sharing/uploading encryption solution we’ve all been looking for. Moreover, It is free for a few days so get it now.

Makey Makey

This Kickstarter project sold me with the banana xylophone. My kids and I are going to have lots of fun with this.

Geek Automation Chart

I love this from Chart Porn.